Must be a full moon

KONRAD MARSHALL

Look up at the sky tonight and howl.

Feel free to act a little wild.

And don't worry about getting strange looks, because most of the people you come across -- if they're not singing their own primal song -- will understand that with the emergence of the full moon comes some inevitable weirdness ... and maybe a few werewolves.

You know the theory: The moon affects the tides through its gravitational pull on water, and humans are 80 percent water, so when our galactic neighbor graces us with its most complete presence -- an event that happens every 29 days -- it must affect us. But does it?

Maybe. Maybe not.

THE THEORY: THE CRIME RATE JUMPS

MAYBE: Police calls go up: No pseudo-scientific assertion in law enforcement offers as much intrigue as the traditional superstition that people do "crazy" things during a full moon.

"You learn on the job that there are certain truisms, and that's one of them," said Assistant Chief James Ross of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. "Dealing with people for as long as I have, I do truly believe that people act different on a full moon. It affects tides, animals, crops, and so why wouldn't we think that it'd affect us some way?"

Indeed, the number of calls made to the Jacksonville Sheriff Office was above average on 11 of the past 15 full moons.

MAYBE NOT: But crimes don't: A statistical analysis by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, comparing a three-year daily average crime rate with the crime rate recorded over the past 15 full moons, shows no significant increase in crime.

On the days of the past 15 full moons, there was a higher than average rate of crime on five days, and a lower than average rate on 10. But the amount of crime never fell outside the expected standard deviation.

The higher-than-average days were also during warmer months, when police ordinarily expect an increase in crime.

THE THEORY: EMERGENCIES JUMP

MAYBE: Stories from the E.R.: Diane Fox, a nurse of two decades' experience between Shands Jacksonville and now St. Vincent's Medical Center, said although she isn't fully convinced of a full-moon effect, emergency room workers in general are.

"If it was a particularly busy night, we'd say, 'It must be a full moon,' and nine times out of 10 we were right," Fox said. "It seemed like people with mental illness would come in more during those cycles -- that people would get into more altercations or partake of alcohol more freely."

MAYBE NOT: Stats from the E.R.: Jacqueline Bauer, a spokeswoman for Shands Jacksonville, said a statistical analysis of emergency department visits on full moons over the past 15 months showed no full-moon effect. If anything, the results point to a dip in people visiting the emergency room.

Variations in the number of E.R. admissions consistently have more to do with the day of the week than anything else, she said, with Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays constituting the high volume part of the week.

THE THEORY: PEOPLE GO CRAZY

MAYBE: "Lunatic" for a reason: Mike Reynolds, associate dean of Mathematics and Natural Science at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, said astronomers hate full moons because they light up the sky, making it difficult to see distant stars or galaxies. Reynolds also pointed out that the word lunatic comes from the Latin "luna," referring to the centuries-old belief that insanity does indeed fluctuate with the phases of the moon.

"I have heard it from students with policemen or firemen for spouses, from nurses and doctors," he said. "My wife worked for years as an operator at AT&T, and she'd come home and say, 'It must be a full moon, with all the crazies that called tonight.' People are captivated by the moon."

MAYBE NOT: It's not physical: The general scientific view of the power of full moons is that they influence the tides and not much else, according to Ata Sarajedini, an astronomer with the Bryant Space Science Center at the University of Florida.

"There is no evidence for any influence of the full moon on people, compared to, say, the new moon or the quarter moon," Sarajedini said. "I honestly don't know why [the myth persists], other than maybe when the moon is full, its light presents a broader range of experience. People perhaps attribute something supernatural to that. ... The other thing is it won't be as dark outside. Youl notice more going on."

ANIMALS GET FREAKY

MAYBE: They bark at the moon: B.J. Szwedzinski owns 12 dogs and takes in another 20 at any given time for her canine boot camp -- Dog Leg Productions -- in Fernandina Beach (and she lives above her kennel). She said she has noticed four things that happen to her dogs on full moons.

"They're more restless because of the stillness that seems to come with a full moon. They don't sleep well, because there more light. They bark more, either because they can see more, or they imagine there's something more. And their timing is way off -- their internal clock," Szwedzinski said.

MAYBE NOT: Peace at the zoo: Sure, fish don't bite as well on full moons, but you would think if there were any evidence to suggest the moon affects animals that it would be found at the zoo. Not so, according to Gina Stiles at the Jacksonville Zoo.

Styles spoke to zoologists and security guards there shortly after the last full moon, in April, and they reported nothing out of the ordinary. No lions eating tofu, or turtles winning races against hares. "It doesn't seem that the moon holds any interest for the animals," Styles said.